OK, I'll put myself out there again, too. Last week we had a 10 foot driveway extension installed from the house all the way down to the street. It was a 3 day project, in between the rain. We're on a corner with a side-loading garage. During Day 1, the backhoe operator had to temporarily block the East/West street while excavating close to the street. This did not prevent anyone from getting where they needed to go. People who approached from either East or West could have driven around the block, simple as that. It's not a main street, just residential, but it's not unusual for a car to pass about every minute or two all throughout the day.
I watched as multiple drivers approached the backhoe, stopped, and just sat there, as if expecting the operator to stop his work and move his backhoe out of their way so they could pass!
At one point, I saw 4 cars lined up in a row, waiting. To make matters worse, IMO, he decided to lift the big bucket in the rear so that the cars could drive underneath the bucket. Um, safety issues, anyone?
I'm not sure how long this went on before I went outside to tell them how to direct people around them. When they moved further up in their excavation, they weren't blocking the street. I had to leave for about an hour and a half. When I got back, I saw an official city vehicle stopped next to their equipment, which was not blocking the road then. He was talking to the crew. After he left, the backhoe operator told me that he'd had to block the road again for some more work near the street. One of the guys stood at the intersection and gestured for all the approaching cars to turn left down the other street.
All but one driver complied right away. An old guy who drove straight from some condos at the end of the East/West street refused to turn left. He sat there, glaring at them. The crew weren't budging this time. Eventually, the old guy made the turn. They didn't give him any other choice. It wasn't long before the city official drove up and said they'd gotten a complaint about them blocking the road. When he saw what they were doing, he told them not to worry about it and drove away. The backhoe operator told me that if they have to block a street for hours at a time, then they're required to put up cones and post detour signs. But not for short, intermittent periods of time.
On Day 2, they didn't have to block the street at all, but an official city vehicle drove by multiple times throughout the day, which doesn't usually happen. Someone probably didn't like the noise of the cement truck.